E-ticket Experience
 

I flew my first e-ticketed KLM segment today, AMS-CPH. As usual I checked in by telephone and used the e.check-in machine at Schiphol to print my boarding card, which I later presented at the gate. An interesting conversation ensued :

- where's your flight coupon?
- there isn't any, it is an electronic ticket.
- no it isn't.
- yes it is.
- no it isn't!
- yes it is.
- it isn't, it doesn't say here! (indicating boarding card).

The gate agents attitude can only be described as hostile. I was in possession of a confirmation of my reservation, which not only contained all the necessary information, but also started with the words "Electronic Ticket". The agent put the confirmation on the desk, and I was compelled to step out of the queue.

Another agent picked up my boarding card:

- this is not an electronic ticket.
- yes it is.
- etc. etc.

The agent, only slightly less hostile than her colleague, started tapping away on her keyboard. After a while she announced :

-you do not have an e-ticket.

I could only reiterate what I had said a number of times, that I did have an e-ticket.

She next made a phone call, and was soon told by whomever she was speaking to that I indeed had an e-ticket. She printed a new boarding card. She also told my I was lucky that I had arrived at the gate early, presumably implying that I would have been denied boarding had I arrived late enough to leave insufficient time for a lengthy argument. She also said that "lots of people" think the have an electronic ticket just because the use the e.check-in machine.

The moral of this story is that if you have an e-ticket and use the e.check-in machine to print a boarding card, you should ascertain that your ticket number, preceded by "ETKT" is printed on the boarding card. The number appears on the stub right below the seat number. For reasons beyond my comprehension this number was missing on my original boarding card, which was the root of the problem.

On a side note, Schiphol was a bit chaotic this afternoon, with quite a few gate changes. As a result numerous pax for Zürich with D7 on their boarding cards had somehow made their way to D63 and lined up for the Copenhagen flight. D7 and D63 are the same physical gate, but are accessible from the non-Schengen and Schengen sections of the D concourse respectively. Other pax were banging on the glass partition between the two areas and desperately waving boarding cards. No wonder the gate agents were a bit stressed!

Despite probably setting some sort of record in infant load factor, the flight itself was fine. I was assigned 6A, and 6C was blocked.

johan

Good report Johan. Your note is accurate and provides real info on KL operations. I like reading these.

I second that. Such info is valuable to avoid 'situations' for the travel of others...

Again: Shame on KLM for introducing this system without a 100% fixed process as it seems...

I has the same trouble when BA introduced E-tickets back in 99, I was almost denied boarding several times... Given time they will get used to it...

Thanks a lot for the information.

I am probadly to old-fashioned, but I still like to have a good old paper ticket.

I guess, AMS-CPH was one of the flights to suffer from the cutbacks on short intraeuropean routes in BIZ.
Has the level of service improved lately ??

The catering in Y currently consists of a bar service plus a slice of typical Dutch cake or a small bag of nuts (although sometimes the FAs will give everybody both, presumably because it is a lot faster than asking each pax for their preference). I believe that newspapers will be reintroduced at the end of this month.

I find the catering in C quite acceptable for a one hour flight, both in quantity and quality. What exactly you get presumably depends on the time of day. On a recent 14h25 flight a chicken curry salad was served with a side dish and a choice of rolls, followed by dessert.

According to the latest FD News :

"On flights of up to 70 minutes, European Business Class passengers will be served a cold meal on a porcelain plate, with a hot roll, several side dishes served on a tray and an extensive drink service with both hot and cold beverages."

I assume "70 minutes" refers to block time, not flying time, so that the service on short flights will be similar to that on longer flights (e.g. AMS-CPH, which has a block time of 1h30, although flying time normally is just over 1h)

johan

Recently I flew BRU - AMS, AMS - LHR and catering in Y was a drink plus a slice of typical Dutch cake and a small bag of nuts. The FAs gave everybody both. I hate Dutch cake so I opened the window and threw it out to the birds. Over Belgium the birds had my taste and did not touch the KL cake. Over the UK the birds came after us and started tapping the window pane for more cake.

[This message has been edited by kurz (edited 06-07-2002).]

The norm is to hand out the cake if you're having tea or coffee and the bag of nuts / mixed snack if you're having something from the bar.

That assumes passengers are offered a beverage before snacks are handed out. The reverse is not uncommon, in my experience:

an FA moves down the aisle at lightning speed distributing snacks from a tray, with a colleague following with the beverage trolley at a more leisurely pace.

johan

[typo]



[This message has been edited by johan rebel (edited 06-10-2002).]

A bit off the original E-ticket topic but anyway....

We just did LHR-RTM (Rotterdam) on KLM Cityhopper and during a 45 min flight we had very tasty salmon wraps, followed but equally tasty Spanish meatballs in a spicy sauce and a nice crumbly apple pastry thing. All washed down with (Spanish) sparkling wine.

i.e. In flight service on all-Y F50 was great!


-- Dambus

To continue off-topic: KLM cityhopper NUE-AMS (1:40), KLM AMS-MAD and MAD-AMS (2:15) last weekend only had an offer of those KLM sandwiches (cheese or tuna on the first flight, cheese or chicken on the MAD flights), some nuts and regular bar service. cityhopper also offered a strange little plastic-container with three pieces of salami and a piece of artichoke in oil.

We flew in Y but got 'select seating' on the MAD flights with seats in rows 5 and 9. On the 737-800 up to row 10 was equipped with the biz-class seats... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

To continue off-topic even futher...

A couple of days ago I travelled with KLM to Hong Kong. We had a full-diner service!! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

It was a really nice flight. Unfortunatly I couldn't upgrade anymore at the lounge/gate because WBC was full. There was only a small business class section: Front rows in the nose and the UD.
But I was seated in the select seating zone. I had 2 chairs for myself. Although you couldn't move the armrest... but I could totally strech my legs... In front of me where the snacks and the water cups. So I was never thirsty!
The overall service was good. I never needed to use the bell buton and even when a passenger used it, a cabin attendant directly responded.
Before take-off one of the cabin attendants came by and asked a couple of passengers in the select seating zone if they were happy with their seat assignments. It looked like she only asked elite members. I was happy with my seat, but she moved some other passengers to a row for themself, etc.
A very nice service-minded touch.

[This message has been edited by Silver Wing (edited 06-11-2002).]

I distinctly recall the in-flight service between Amsterdam and Malmö Sturup (MMX) not that many years ago, when KLM Cityhopper still used a SAAB 340B on the route. On this 1½ hour flight the single FA usually found time for the following :

-bar service
-full (cold) meal service
-second bar service
-dessert
-coffee / tea
-third bar service.

On occasion, a less energetic FA would skip one of the bar services.

johan

Well done Cityhopper. I can't remember the last time I was *pleasantly* surprised by in-flight service.

I notice that both KLM and KLM Cityhopper operate on the AMS-CDG route - it seems that Cityhopper is the way to go!


-- Dambus

p.s. and you get double FD points....

Back to the original topic :

I'm pleased to report that I did not experience any problems on the return flight from CPH.

However. . . a colleague just told me the following story :

She recently flew AMS-GOT-AMS. She had no problems checking in and boarding the aircraft, but five minutes before schedule departure time from AMS a gate agent came on board and demanded that she leave the aircraft, as "you don't have a ticket". A discussion ensued ("I have an e-ticket", "no you don't", etc.). My colleague simply refused to disembark, secure in the knowledge that locating and removing her checked luggage would cause a considerable delay. The extremely rude gate agent disappeared, never to be seen again, and the aircraft departed.

On the return flight exactly the same thing happened. Just before departure a gate agent came on board and told her to get off the aircraft. This time she was actually compelled to disembark. At the gate the agent who had checked her in was summoned . This agent broke down and confessed in tears (!!) that it was all her fault, she should never have checked her in without a ticket! The matter was of course also finally resolved, all though my colleague feels that the aircraft would probably have departed without her if her luggage had not been in the hold.

This colleague has recently been transfered, and expects to fly some two dozen AMS-GOT segments a year for the foreseeable future. She has decided to give her custom to SAS from now on, even though that involves changing aircraft at CPH.

KLM are to be congratulated on losing a frequent customer!

johan

[This message has been edited by johan rebel (edited 06-19-2002).]